Taking crime into his own hands

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 15/09/2015 (3892 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It was late Sunday night when I texted often outspoken local businessman Daren Jorgenson, wondering what he’s been up to.

I was wondering how things were going at the still-shuttered bar and restaurant at the Royal Albert Arms Hotel he once co-owned with the late Ray Rybachuk. You remember Ray; the cocaine-trafficking, money-laundering, chainsaw wielding, reputed Most Dangerous Man in Winnipeg. Until, at age 42, when Rybachuk tumbled off a slow-moving snowmobile and died.

Turns out Rybachuk’s widow is operating the rented rooms at the historic Exchange-area hotel; while Jorgenson is in the process of finalizing a deal he hopes will have others run the bar, bring back live music and reopen the restaurant. He’s already sold the building next door to a Vancouver developer who wants to turn 52 Albert St., the former home of Vault hair salon, into condos. Anyway, Jorgenson shared all of that after he returned my text.

“A little of this, a little of that,” was Jorgenson’s initial response.

I glanced at the time it was sent: 2:16 a.m. Monday. What was he doing up and texting at two in the morning? His answer soon followed.

“I am out on patrol right now in River Heights. Myself and some other guys have a night patrol going on where we are driving around and patrolling the neighbourhood for crack/meth heads committing petty crimes.”

By the sounds of what he had written some hours earlier on Facebook, that’s because Jorgenson gave up on the justice system protecting him and his property. He awoke Sunday morning at his Wellington Crescent home to find his garage door jimmied and three vehicles broken into. That intrusion — on a property protected by motion-activated floodlights — follows another driveway incident a few months ago when someone stole his truck. It’s still missing.

One can appreciate how that might fuel feelings of frustration and rage. Jorgenson’s Facebook rant, posted Sunday morning, started this way: “Just another weekend in the crime-plagued Winnipeg neighbourhood of River Heights.”

He was referring to the rash of vehicle break-ins — and the resulting smashed windows — that has been plaguing the leafy and largely middle- and upper-income neighbourhood.

His Facebook report went on: “Police are powerless to stop all of this crime in River Heights because the Canadian criminal justice system treats any punks they catch with kid gloves and there’s next to no successful rehab programs for these addicts in Manitoba. From now on, all break-ins at my house will be handled ‘in house’ and if that leads to these punks getting a good beating while me and the boys are protecting our property to send a message… to leave this home alone, then that is just going to be have to be the way it is.”

By that time, Jorgenson had posted a photo of the latest addition to his home protection team; a Rottweiler for a patrol partner. And apparently, he has another on order.

“Trespass or commit crime on our property at your own risk,” the caption under the photo read. “Consider yourself warned!”

Gather that’s the online version of the old-fashion fence sign, “beware of dog,” which, in a situation where protecting one’s castle from prowling burglars is the mission, should to be more effective than Facebook.

Nevertheless, by Monday at noon, less than a day after Jorgenson posted that comment, it had more than 50 “likes.” None of them, we can be sure, from the Winnipeg Police Service. I asked the police service for a comment anyway.

“If suspicious activity is observed on any occasion anywhere in the city, police should be notified immediately. We caution and strongly discourage anyone of taking matters into their own hands as suggested (by) Mr. Jorgenson… i.e.: vigilantism.”

For all his frothing at the Facebook mouth, Jorgenson’s online bark is worse than his neighbourhood patrol’s bite. He doesn’t intend to become a vigilante.

“I’m not out there to beat anyone up,” he said over the phone later Monday.

“Just to observe and report crime.”

Anyone can understand his emotional reaction to having the security of his home and family threatened. But it might have a deeper genesis. Jorgenson still might be recovering from the trauma of having a different kind of dangerous, snarling dog of a partner. The Most Feared Man in Winnipeg is long gone, but for some, the memory of Ray “the Rottweiler” Rybachuk lingers.

“Woof.”

gordon.sinclair@freepress.mb.ca